Rubio eyes brokered convention after New Hampshire setback

Associated Press

Published
2:22 pm PST, Thursday, February 11, 2016

OKATIE, S.C. — The best hope of the Republican establishment just a week ago, Marco Rubio suddenly faces a path to his party’s presidential nomination that could require a brokered national convention.

That’s according to Rubio’s campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, who said this week’s disappointing performance in New Hampshire will extend the Republican nomination fight for another three months, if not longer. It’s a worst-case scenario for Rubio and many Republican officials alike who hoped to avoid a prolonged and painful nomination fight in 2016.

“We very easily could be looking at May — or the convention,” Sullivan said as Rubio’s charter jet traveled from New Hampshire to South Carolina this week. “I would be surprised if it’s not May or the convention.”

The public embrace of a possible brokered convention marks a sharp shift in rhetoric from Rubio’s top adviser that could be designed to raise alarm bells among Republican officials. Yet days after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire and looking up at Donald Trump in next-up South Carolina, Rubio’s presidential ambitions are facing growing odds.

“After this week I feel 55,” the 44-year-old senator joked as he courted voters at an Okatie elderly community Thursday.

The joke aside, the first-term Florida senator discussed his political challenges at length during an unusual 45-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard his campaign plane the day before. He answered questions until there weren’t any more, noting afterward that he hadn’t held a session that long with reporters since his days as Florida’s House speaker.

In remarks that were at times personal and others defiant, he also may have simply needed to talk it out to help process his predicament. It also seemed he needed to prove to the political world, himself and his family that he could face the biggest test of his young presidential bid.

As he shifts his attention to South Carolina’s Feb. 20 contest, Rubio wants voters to know he’s learned an important lesson from his experience in New Hampshire. Instead of trying to avoid attacking his GOP rivals on the debate stage, Rubio said he’s now prepared to fight back when necessary — particularly with his party’s front-runner Donald Trump.